By
ssafran@npr.org.
Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio streamed directly from their servers.

Every day, faculty members at schools and universities throughout the world are making discoveries that shape our ways of thinking and redefine our understanding of today's knowledge-driven society. Since 1990, The Best of Our Knowledge has highlighted breakthroughs across disciplines and across the globe, putting you in touch with the men and women at the forefront of their fields.

257 episodes available.
A new episode about every
6 days
averaging 25 mins duration
.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Politicians and pundits start accusing teachers of being socialists and indoctrinating students into their nefarious way of thinking, and demand an investigation. This actually happened in New York just before the start of the Second World War and it is now seen as the seed that gave birth to McCarthyism aft ...…

Without coffee, the entire educational system would collapse. Sure, that may sound like hyperbole, but if you’ve ever sat through an 8 am chemistry lecture on a Monday morning you’d be nodding in agreement right now. The fact is coffee has become engrained not only in American, but around the world as our go to pick-me-up of choice. And some co ...…

You may have noticed, but in the last few months we’ve been talking a lot about history. It’s not because it was my favorite class (spoiler alert – it was). But it’s because out of all the academic classes and programs, history has the best stories. Now, a life long professor of history has turned his research on himself and has written about h ...…

It’s kind of hard to describe what it feels like walking through New Orleans to someone who has never been there. But according to a newly published history, if you want to understand New Orleans, watch a few of its funerals. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk about the Crescent City with a New Orleans native who has just written a ...…

Artificial intelligence is no longer a theory or a science fiction plot. It is all around us and most of us use it every day. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll hear about a new national commission on artificial intelligence, and how ethical questions about its use start and end with us, the humans. Then we’ll talk to a film maker who, i ...…

Over 20 years ago, a sociology professor named James Loewen wrote and book that had people taking a closer look at the history that we thought we knew. Now, with over 2 million copies sold, that book is still significant and changing the way teachers teach. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll take another look at the book Lies My Teacher ...…

For six days last month, about 600 thousand students had their school days turned upside down as teachers in the Los Angeles school district went on strike. That follows a number of other labor actions by teachers last year. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk about the teacher’s labor movement kin the US. Then we’ll head to New York ...…

Much to the frustration of their parents and teachers, there are some truly brilliant young people out there who are just terrible students. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll listen again to our talk with a veteran educator about what it takes to develop the skills that help a student learn how to learn. Then we’ll head to New York Stat ...…

A great way to understand the history of a region and its people is to study their music. And in Mississippi, that music is the blues. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll hear about the Mississippi Blues Trail, and how it traces the history of this uniquely American genre of music from its roots around the state to cities around the world ...…

While attending school at every level, everyone has their own special, personal relationship with math. For some it’s fear and loathing. For others calm acceptance. There are even some students who see it as love at first sight. But a popular math blogger has a more practical approach. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk to that blog ...…

Being a kid ain’t what it used to be. And no, I’m not saying that in a ‘all you kids get off my lawn” kind of way. It’s just a fact. So how can parents and teachers deal with students who have grown up with wi-fi and technology and screens? It’s not that they’re not trying. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk the new childhood, and h ...…

The relationship between politicians and scientists in the US has always been complicated…and that was especially true during the cold war. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk about the cold war struggle for the soul of science. Then we’ll hear how laptops have become standard equipment in college classrooms across the country, and h ...…

You meet the coolest and most interesting people putting together a weekly program like this, and every year we like to look back and listen again to some interesting conversations with fascinating people. Back in the spring we had a conversation with the head of one of the country’s largest teacher’s unions about labor actions taken across the ...…

There are some end of year traditions that we all look forward to, and one of mine is looking back over the last 12 months and listening again to some of what we feel were the best stories we told. For years, the cable network C-SPAN has toured the country in a well-equipped bus visiting schools, book fairs and state capitols. Today on the Best ...…

Does a love of language spur people to travel the world, or is it the other way around? I don’t know if we’ll be able to answer that question in the next 25 minutes, but with any luck you’ll have something to think about. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll meet a teacher who took the dream of living abroad, and turned it into a career…a ...…

When it comes to the medical field, women have come a long way in 50 years. It’s no longer surprising to see women as physicians and surgeons. However the story remains very different when it comes to medical professors. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll hear about a program at a major US medical school to help groom more women as profe ...…

There are tons of books available about finding the right college and rating colleges and universities and listing the best of this and the best of that in higher education and basically trying to teach you and your child how to choose a college. But a college professional says those books and most parents and students are doing it wrong. Today ...…

A failing high school in North Las Vegas, Nevada was given a chance to remake itself and change the lives of some struggling students. Now, less than two years later, the experiment is paying off. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll take a tour of Desert Rose High School, and hear how students from all over the region are buying in to the ...…

Teachers have a huge effect on the lives of their students. And one of the biggest and most important parts of a teacher’s job is something where they get little to no training of guidance: handing out grades. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk to a veteran educator who says the way teachers grade their students in the US is broken… ...…

There’s a college in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains of New York whose culinary program has grown to the point where they had to leave the campus and open up a restaurant downtown. Today on the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll hear from the president of SUNY Adirondack about Seasoned, a culinary experience located downtown. We’ll also lea ...…

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